Summer Reading Program will come to a close on July 26 

Last month, Sheridan County Library System Youth Services Manager Zola Shockley announced that the Summer Reading Challenge had experienced a record number of registered readers. 

Director of the Sheridan County Public Library System, Amy Long, stopped by Sheridan Media’s Public Pulse to talk about the successful program and said she hopes it only grows from here.  

A. Long 

Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books and educational materials for pre-K to grade 12, published an article written by Ashley Austrew, reporting the concept of the summer slide has been on researchers’ radar since at least 1996, when one of the first comprehensive studies on the phenomenon was published.

Austrew reported the study showed that kids lose significant knowledge in reading and math over summer break, which tends to have a snowball effect as they experience subsequent skill loss each year. A more recent study of children in 3rd to 5th grades also showed that students lost, on average, about 20 percent of their school-year gains in reading and 27 percent of their school-year gains in math during summer break.

The Sheridan County Library System utilizes programs such as the Summer Reading Program to keep children engaged in reading throughout the summer season in an effort to prevent the summer slide. 

The Summer Reading Program will conclude with a celebration and awards presentation at noon on Friday July 26, at the Fulmer Library.